Structure of Multi-Meron Knot Action

We consider the structure of multi-meron knot action in the Yang-Mills theory and in the CP^1 Ginzburg-Landau model. Self-dual equations have been obtained without identifying orientations in the space-time and in the color space. The dependence of the energy bounds on topological parameters of coherent states in planar systems is also discussed. In particular, it is shown that a characteristic size of a knot in the Faddeev-Niemi model is determined by the Hopf invariant.Comment: 7 pages, Latex2

Kondo effect in the presence of spin-orbit coupling

We study the T=0 Kondo physics of a spin-1/2 impurity in a non-centrosymmetric metal with spin-orbit interaction. Within a simple variational approach we compute ground state properties of the system for an {\it arbitrary} form of spin-orbit coupling consistent with the crystal symmetry. This coupling produces an unscreened impurity magnetic moment and can lead to a significant change of the Kondo energy. We discuss implications of this finding both for dilute impurities and for heavy-fermion materials without inversion symmetry.Comment: TeXLive (Unix), revtex4-1, 5 page

Yang-Mills and Born-Infeld actions on finite group spaces

Discretized nonabelian gauge theories living on finite group spaces G are defined by means of a geometric action \int Tr F\wedge *F . This technique is extended to obtain a discrete version of the Born-Infeld action.Comment: Talk presented at GROUP24, Paris, July 2002. LaTeX, 4 pages, IOP style

Local physics of magnetization plateaux in the Shastry-Sutherland model

We address the physical mechanism responsible for the emergence of magnetization plateaux in the Shastry-Sutherland model. By using a hierarchical mean-field approach we demonstrate that a plateau is stabilized in a certain {\it spin pattern}, satisfying {\it local} commensurability conditions derived from our formalism. Our results provide evidence in favor of a robust local physics nature of the plateaux states, and are in agreement with recent NMR experiments on \scbo.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX 2

Quantum group covariant noncommutative geometry

The algebraic formulation of the quantum group covariant noncommutative geometry in the framework of the $R$-matrix approach to the theory of quantum groups is given. We consider structure groups taking values in the quantum groups and introduce the notion of the noncommutative connections and curvatures transformed as comodules under the "local" coaction of the structure group which is exterior extension of $GL_{q}(N)$. These noncommutative connections and curvatures generate $GL_{q}(N)$-covariant quantum algebras. For such algebras we find combinations of the generators which are invariants under the coaction of the "local" quantum group and one can formally consider these invariants as the noncommutative images of the Lagrangians for the topological Chern-Simons models, non-abelian gauge theories and the Einstein gravity. We present also an explicit realization of such covariant quantum algebras via the investigation of the coset construction $GL_{q}(N+1)/(GL_{q}(N)\otimes GL(1))$.Comment: 21 pages, improved versio